Should you opt for medical tourism?

The last thing that a patient would consider is to travel beyond the country for medical support. But situations at times can be so compelling that you may be left with no other option.  Leaving aside the rising healthcare cost, unavailability of critical treatments in the home country or unprecedented waiting times may force you to opt for medical travel.

If you are in a dire need to get rid of an ailment or persisting health discomfort, waiting for long may not be a good idea. The condition may deteriorate. You can select any suitable destination offering the best treatment and get your job done. Plus, you can enjoy a relaxing holiday for a few days. There are many good reasons to go for medical tourism that often comes with other benefits apart from cost savings.

Aged but healthy enough to travel

Retired persons and pensioners often do not get adequate coverage for expensive surgeries and experimental treatments. But they are most likely to suffer from chronic ailments and other debilitating conditions due to aging. For them, medical tourism can be a great option. Whether it is dental work, anti-aging therapies or complex cardiac, orthopedic and oncology surgeries, seniors can get a better option beyond the border.

Needing urgent medical attention

Consider a patient needing cardiac surgery or organ transplantation.  Waiting for months for the desired appointment and treatments could be dangerous. There are ample instances. If your home country is unable to provide you the timely support, you can arrange for the required treatments in your neighboring country with accredited facilities and world-class service.

You can get in touch with some of the global medical experts and caregivers who would help you with the required support during and after the treatment ensuring complete recovery to fly back home safely. Even if you are unable to arrange for all these all alone by yourself, you can seek professional service from reputed/accredited medical tourism companies or facilitators.

Quick relief from discomfort

If you are suffering from chronic discomfort like joint pain, vision problems or any other physiological issues which may not be life-threatening but affect your day to day activities and quality of life. Instead of wasting months in your home country, a medical tourism trip would be worth taking.

Unavailability of special treatments in local clinics

You may be longing for special cosmetic surgery, dental treatments or treatment of some complex diseases but your home clinics do not have effective solutions. You can consider medical tourism where you can punch your holiday and treatment in a single package.

Substantial savings often with insurance support

This is often the main driving factor for medical travelers. Sometimes, the savings can be much better than you could think of. Going by the figures, dental treatments occupy top the savings chart often costing 1/10^th of that quoted in the US clinics. The cost of a major dental work in the US would be almost equivalent to the cumulative cost of a similar dental treatment and family vacation in a popular medical tourism destination.

Often the expenses for foreign medical treatment are not to be paid from the pocket. Many insurers nowadays are willingly reimbursing those costs as these are much lower than the domestic costs. The only thing that you need is to maintain the treatment records and bills to submit to the appropriate insurance official. Prior consultation with the insurer also can open up convenient avenues of reimbursement.

Better access to advanced healthcare

Medical tourism offers you improved access to emerging treatments like stem cell treatments, regenerative medicine, Genomeds and personalized medicine. Barring a selected few, all stem cell treatments are not available in the US owing to regulatory restrictions. Many countries are doing praiseworthy work in developing effective stem cell treatments but one needs to be very cautious as many of these therapies are frauds. Personalized Oncology therapy in Singapore and stem cell therapy to treat damaged heart tissue in Bangkok have proven efficacies and are supported by the government.

Comprehensive services

If a reputed facility in a destination offers comprehensive services related everything to your medical travel, it can be a strong reason for you to choose this option. Internationally accredited clinics with world-class infrastructure in almost all well-famed medical tourism destinations maintain a dedicated international patient department offering comprehensive service packages. They take care of everything right from visa processing, travel arrangement, treatment and recovery till you fly home safe and sound.

Quality

Quality remains a concern among medical travelers. Low cost or cheap price is often associated with quality compromise but in a well-planned medical trip, the situation is just the opposite. Medical travelers have the perception that expert doctors are always available in the developed nations which is not the case.

The standard of medical education is very high in developing countries as well and most of the expert surgeons and specialists have gone through various training programs in the US and UK. Their expertise is even higher than the average doctor that one comes across in the US and UK. It may not be possible for you to judge the quality of doctors but with the support of a reputed facilitator, you can get access to some of the best specialists.

Opting for medical tourism can be a smart move only when it is done through meticulous planning and information-gathering. Whatever you choose, you must get a deeper insight into the implications so as to avoid any untoward outcome.